St. Joseph Tables
by Adriano Catalfio

The “dinners”
The “St. Joseph Table” is a sign of folk devotion to the saint. This feast is celebrated in the whole Sicily and even in Terrasini it keeps untouched the ritual, but today they used to utilize it in touristic terms.
The dinner born by a promise, that is consequence of a grace or expression of devotion to the saint.
They decide on the number of the guests: three, five, ten, up to thirteen: they are the Apostles and Jesus in the Last Supper, but sometimes there are also other saints, in the opinion of the organizer, like Mary's parents (Ann and Joachim, in the apocrypha), St. Rosalia etc.
Another choice is about the expenses: to be paid by the organizer or shared with the neighbours. If that is the case, the expenses are shared and finally is decided when the table will be ready (usually nine days before the dinner).
The table must be round. A white linen tablecloth is spreaded on the table with the necessary materials for the dinner.
In front of every dish there are a bread, an orange, a cedar.
On the table there are also the most beautiful lamps, vases, sacred statues, candelabra, trinkets.
In the room is displayed another table, where will be placed the St. Joseph bread and the fruits that will be offered at the end of the dinner to the poor. When the table is ready, the visitors begin to come, to admire the table and to declaim the rosary.
The night before the dinner there is a sea of lights dedicated to the Saint to warm up His limbs. A lot of wood, old chairs, boxes, various scraps is burned. There is a joyful and merry atmosphere in the air.

St. Joseph Day
Early in the morning the family of the organizer and the neighbours begins working hard, preparing the fragrant and crisp bread, the food, the fruits, the sweets.
The prestige of the family is at stake.
The appointed day, the guests arrive and the room is full of careful and participant people.
The poors sit on the table and from this moment they are called “Saints”: Jesus, St. Joseph and the Madonna are in the middle.
Jesus is personified by a child with a white tunic, and a red band in the waist. Joseph and Mary, usually, wear common clothes like the others. Only Joseph kepps in the hand the staff adorned with freesias.
Before the begin of the celebration there is the blessing of the bread. Under the expert direction of an old woman. That keeps the memory of the prays and the rituals, the feast goes on.
The Holy Family leaves the room, sitting outside; inside, the family on knees with a candle. The Pilgrims knock three times, remembering the hard travel in Betlemme searching an “hotel”. The doors are opened and the three pilgrims are welcomed with joyful cries: “Up to St. Joseph the Patriarch”.
Then there is the washing of the feet. The householders wash the feet and the hands of the Holy Family. They use flowers scented-water.
The feet and the hands are dried with a white linen towel and finally, after the blessing of Jesus to the food and to the guests, the banquet starts.

The food
The bread is the main aliment of the dinner. Is kneaded to become crisp and baked. It has different shapes and weight, with the sign of the cross. St. Joseph reiceve a long bread staff-shaped, Mary a bread palm-shaped (sign of virginity), Jesus a “cucciddatu” (typical bread).
The other foods are the orange and the cedar, but there are also pasta, meat, fish, fruits, sweets, broad bean, legumes etc.